Senate will launch transcripts at meeting of Russian lawyers

Image title Mr. Trump Jr has been interviewed by several researchers in Washington

A committee of the United States Senate plans to publish transcripts of interviews with Trump advisers who attended a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

Transcripts include an interview with Donald Trump Jr, who confirmed that he attended the meeting after dirt was promised to Hillary Clinton.

The interviews are part of one of several investigations into the possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

It was not immediately clear when the transcripts would be published.

The chairman of the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, said the panel would begin to publish "all the witness interviews we have done related to that meeting" immediately and "take them out to the public for all to see" .

Dianne Feinstein, the president of the ranking, said she was "delighted" with Mr. Grassley's decision.

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Image caption Mr. Grassley and Mrs. Feinstein

The committee, which leads one of four consultations with Trump officials, interviewed other participants at the meeting, including music promoter Rob Goldstone, Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Anatoli Samochornov, the lawyer's translator Russian Natalia Veselnitskaya. [19659007] When the meeting was first revealed, Trump Jr said in a statement that he attended to talk about adoptions of Russian children in the United States.

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But later changed his story to say he had attended the meeting after They promised information that would help defeat the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

Subsequently, several media reported that President Trump had personally dictated the first misleading statement, alleging that the meeting considered adoptions

Critics say that Trump's participation may constitute an obstruction of justice.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who served Trump during his campaign and during the first seven months of his presidency, called the meeting a "traitor."

Later, Mr. Bannon clarified that his comments were directed to campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had also attended the meeting.

President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended the meeting, was not interviewed as part of the committee's investigation.

Grassley said at a hearing on Thursday that the "chances of getting a voluntary interview with Kushner have been fired," and blamed Ms. Feinstein for "frightening" other potential witnesses by unilaterally releasing the interview transcript of the panel with the founder of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson.

Fusion GPS participated in the production of the now famous dossier claiming links between Mr. Trump and the Kremlin.

Separately on Thursday, the inspector general of the Justice Department informed Congress that a treasure trove of text messages exchanged between the FBI agents investigated by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been recovered.

Republicans have analyzed text messages, which had been missing due to technical failure, between FBI attorney Lisa Page and FBI agent Peter Strzok for alleged exchanges that disparage Donald Trump and other political figures.

Trump, and his team, have claimed that the texts demonstrate political bias in the FBI.

Mr. Strzok was removed from the investigation into the special lawyer Robert Mueller in Russia after the messages were discovered.